Autumn Cometh

So… after receiving ZERO comments on any of the posts I’ve made over the past month, I finally had the sense to go and check the blog and see what the heck was going on, and… BLOGGER HAS NOT EVEN BEEN DISPLAYING THE POSTS!!!

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Haha, yeah… no… I seriously just have not done any posts within the last month. o_o My bad. So, insert various half-hearted excuses about being busy, seemingly self-deprecating criticisms of inherent apathy, and earnest (but ultimately unrealized) promises of improvement here: ____________________, aaannndddd… moving on!

What have I been watching? Well, since late July when I went and saw Inception, I have viewed (in theaters): The Karate Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, Salt, and The A-Team.

Of those four films, only one of them was on my “top ten” list (The Karate Kid), and one was on the “runners up” list (Salt). How to Train Your Dragon would have been on my top ten list, but I created the list after the movie was released in theaters. I ended waiting to see “Dragon” at the cheap theater, which doesn’t get stuff in until waaaayyyy after the other theaters have stopped screening, but you only pay $1.00-$3.00, so… worth it.

I had debated going back and doing a review post on each film, but it’s really trippy trying to review a movie more than a few days after you’ve seen it, so the longer I kept trying to do that, the longer I ended up putting off posting, and I finally just said, screw it. I’ll post whatever the heck I want, and it’s not gonna be movie reviews. However, I will note that the above films were: Good (Salt), Good (The Karate Kid), Great (How to Train Your Dragon) and Good (The A-Team). Interestingly, I saw each one with a different person, and none of them were the people I usually go with. All good company, however.

If you’re an avid movie-viewer, and would recommend at least renting all of them. Salt and The A-Team had very summer-movie-type plots with either a very simple or “been there, seen that” feel, but were great on action. How much you enjoy them might depend on how you like your protagonists (testosterone-laden Army Ranger team, or femme fatale Russian spy), but both are good entertainment.

The Karate Kid was a little better story-wise, and seeing Jaden Smith in action will always be a treat. Definitely worth a viewing, even if you’re not into martial arts, but definitely if you’re into Jackie Chan. He really digs in with his acting spurs, drawing emotion out of his otherwise-quite-stoic character at the appropriate moments. Other than the mom getting kind of obnoxious at times, and the love story being a little awkward-tween-icky, I enjoyed this one (and was glad to cross the first “to watch” film off my top ten list, finally).

My favorite of the four was definitely How to Train Your Dragon. An excellent picture from Dreamworks that has received loads of positive reviews, I convinced my mom to take me to see this one for my birthday. She was iffy because of the title, and because if was from Dreamworks. I think she had more a of a Shrek-like film in mind, with the oft-inappropriate humor and spoofy story-line. However, she walked out voicing surprise and approval at how good the film was. Another winner from the ol’ Dream machine. They may not be quite on par with Pixar (yet), but they’re sure as heck giving it their best shot.

In completely unrelated news, my Mozy backup has passed the halfway mark like a herd of turtles. Also, I found out the upload speed was being severely throttled (my bad), so I adjusted that and it’s running a little faster now. I just hope these segmented sessions don’t results in a fuzzy backup. Only time will tell.

PS- My fellow bloggers whose posts I normally comment on… do not despair. I’m still reading, I just haven’t had time to comment. I’ll get right on that.

James and the Giant Peach on Blu-ray

Guess what came out of Blu-ray this past Tuesday?

Guess who hasn’t been able to pick it up, yet? :(

When I was a kid, my brothers and I used to watch this one over and over (on VHS, of course). I remember, this was pretty much the first movie my mom ever took us to see in the theater that was rated PG. Back then, PG-rated films were taboo with my family. We just didn’t go there. Sadly, if that film were re-rated by today’s standards, it would probably score a G.

However, I cannot seem to find this title for a decent price. Anywhere. Granted, Disney titles are almost always priced higher than other studios’ releases (even catalog releases like this one), but retailers usually offer some kind of special pricing during the first week. Typically, Disney titles can be had for somewhere around $20 right at release, and you end up getting them for $10 because Disney almost always offers a $10 coupon on their Blu-rays.

But, everywhere I go, $24.99… $24.99. Even Amazon is not giving me a break on this one. I may just have to fold and cough up the $15, which is right at my BD price limit, and doable, but…

In other news, I finally got around to seeing The Karate Kid (yes, the new one) last Wednesday. As always, a review will be forthcoming. This is just a filler post to keep the blog from dying completely. *cough*

Reel Time Updates: Inception

On Friday, July 16th, I and my regular crew hit the cinema for a 12:35pm showing of Christopher Nolan’s box office hit: Inception.

I’d been looking forward to this one since I saw the first trailer, though I probably would have gone to see it based simply on the fact that it was directed by Nolan. Or because Ken Watanabe is in it. Take your pick.

It was a great drama/thriller/brain-bender, and while there were adequately-spaced action sequences throughout, if you don’t like movies of some complexity that require a little thought during playback, you might want to sit this one out and just pick it up from Netflix or Redbox later on down the road. That way, if you end up falling asleep, you can do so in the comfort (and privacy) of your own home. The film was obviously a little too much for the viewer sitting directly behind us, as he yawned and muttered sleepily to his companion throughout the showing. Maybe he should have read the prequel comic before attending.

The Trailers: Unfortunately, it’s been over a week since I saw this one, and I typically try to rely on my (hardly reliable) memory for what was previewed before the film. I do remember seeing a lot of trailers that I’d never seen before. I remember: Due Date (starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Heard of, but never previewed); The Town (never seen or heard of); The Social Network (heard of, but thought it was just some kind of internet joke. It’s basically taking something mundane and trying to make it dramatic… either that, or trying to make people hate/distrust Facebook less. Or both); Tron Legacy (I’m a little iffy on this one. Still need to see the first one). And, yes, I’m going to try and start linking to the trailers I saw, because, otherwise, what’s the point?

My Take on Inception: Because of the nature of this film (it’s complex and makes you think), there are a whole lot of reviews out there discussing all the in and outs, the what-ifs and various aspects that Nolan touched on without going into further detail. One thing I will not discuss here is the controversial closing scene that everyone seems to be stuck on. At most, it was merely Nolan’s way of leaving an open window for a sequel. Beyond that, I don’t think viewers should let it change how they view the film as a whole.

Inception certainly lived up to my expectations, and they were relatively high (probably the highest I’ve had in a while), especially after seeing all the A and A+ reviews. Nolan presents the very unique concept of stealthing into and raiding people’s minds through dreams, and proceeds to strap that idea to a runaway freight train, taking it to its limits. Just when you think the film’s protagonists cannot delve any deeper into the minds of those they’re attempting to exploit, they do.

The score was superb. That “bass horn blast” I mentioned in my “Top 10” post? It was every bit as awesome as I expected it to be in theater surround-sound. I will almost definitely hunt down the soundtrack. It will be like giving my bass speakers crack.

Of course the casting was top-notch, and the visuals were excellent. I’m sure a lot of the film was green-screened, but the cast breezed through like pros, interacting well with the digital sets.

There was only one scene that I felt a bit let down by. (SPOILER ALERT) Throughout the film, DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, is haunted (both in and out of the dream worlds) by memories of his deceased wife, Mal, whose death he feels responsible for. She is painted as both villain and victim as she pleads with Cobb to remain with her in the dream world, and then tries to destroy him and his team when he refuses. Near the end of the film, when Cobb finally realizes that he must let go of his twisted, tainted memories of his wife, the tortured farewell scene was not quite as emotional as I thought it should have been. This is likely because we do not get to know Mal very well, or at least not beyond her status as Cobb’s unforgiving, relentless, and mostly memory-based personal issue. While the scene was very dramatic, and somewhat dragged-out, I just wasn’t feeling it when Cobb severed the crumbling, imaginary relationship he’d been failing to sustain with the person he loved and longed for the most. (END SPOILER ALERT)

If you haven’t seen this film, yet, you need to. Go see it on the big screen, and then pick it up when it’s released on Blu-ray (or DVD if you prefer inferior video/audio quality). It has great action, performances, dialogue, sound, visuals, and the story actually forces you to think. If this is Chris Nolan’s way of throwing us a bone between The Dark Knight and “Batman 3”, I, for one, am gnawing away with relish.

(Oh, and I snuck in a little reference to the reason it took me so long to get this post up. If you spotted it, congratulations! If not… you probably don’t need to know. *grin, wink*)

A Successful Recovery

So, as you may have guessed from my absence (and for that, I do apologize), or to reiterate if you’ve been following me tweets, I got my data back on Friday, July 9th, and have been working to catch up on everything since that point. The professional service I’d entreated to help me out (I did my best not to whimper when I handed the technician my comatose drive) was able to make a full recovery, and so it’s time for some name-dropping (because you have to earn that):

Data Recovery Group – I was helped by a Mr. Ron Davis, who is, apparently, a regional manager, and was very courteous and helpful. The diagnosis on the drive was a single bad head, which was replaced, and then I brought in a second hard-drive for him to transfer the recovered data onto.

The place was like a doctor’s office (a hard-drive doctor), and there were several previous patients (I guess they’d donated their bodies to science) lying dissected on a table by the check-in desk. It was very educational; I think all physicians should look into it.

The office was complete with a sign-in sheet and paperwork to fill out. The front desk extended from wall-to-wall like a blockade. The only way through was to climb over, and it was at least chest-height. I assumed this was for when the “doctor” had to tell people that the patient hadn’t made it. I can imagine folks getting pretty pissed/irrational in their grief, and I wondered if the technician kept some sort of ranged weapon behind the desk. I almost asked him if they had any referrals for grief counselors.

But, as I’d noted previously in Put Your Data in The Cloud, I hit up Mozy.com for a 2-year subscription as soon as I got home. It was around $88USD after a 15% off + 1 Month Free coupon I found on RetailMeNot. (As of 07.15.10, it’s the one at the top, BESTOFMONTH. It says 20% off, but it’s actually 15%.) I downloaded the Mozy software, selected what I wanted it to backup, and let’errip. The little spinning circle of life that indicated someone knew how to use Flash progress activity churned to life, and… and now I know why it’s called “Mozy”:

mo·sey mo·zy / [moh-zee] –verb
1.to wander or shuffle about leisurely; stroll; saunter

In other words, this sucker is slow. And when it’s on, the internet has a bad case of the lags. Granted, this will only be the case for the duration of the initial backup, but, if I did my calculations right, that could take anywhere from 2-5 months to complete. Yeah.

I’m only averaging 1.5 – 2 GBs of data uploaded per day at full speed, and that severely throttles bandwidth. Because of that, I’m only allowing Mozy to run at night when no one’s using the internet. Yes, I could decrease the amount of bandwidth Mozy’s allowed to use while uploading so it could run 24/7, but even then, the lag is just noticeable enough that the other household members get pissed, and shoot strings of frustrated, “R u d/ling sumthin!?” texts my way. I guess I’ll keep fiddling with it.

Once the initial download is completed, Mozy will run in the background (I’m hoping with little-to-no resource-hogging behavior), quietly backing up only the files that it detects have been updated since the last backup.

So, while the old, faulty hard-drive was KIA, I guess you could say “all’s well that ends well”. And while I may be significantly poorer because of my lack of foresight, whenever I lose money due to my own ineptitude, I like to look at it as the cost of a lesson well learned. In this case, the moral of the story is: always backup your data, because you’ll never know how much it’s worth until it’s (almost) gone.

More Awesomeness from TeeFury

One of my last posts over at the “old” ~synonymous blue LiveJournal blog showcased the nine awesome tees I’d received via three separate TeeFury.com grab-bags ($17 shipped gets you three random tees, chosen from what was on sale the previous month). Why would I pay good money for mystery shirts that I don’t even know if I’ll like? For the thrill, my friends! Also, most of their tees are, at the very least, interesting and well-designed, so my indulgence in these little bundles of 100% cotton joy is rarely a waste.

Last month, TeeFury posted up another grab-bag for May 2010, and I (of course) pounced on it. Here’s what I received:

JUNE 2010 GRAB BAG

Galactic Sideshow ~ Thomas G. Sullivan | This one was the best of the three. It has a great geek/Trekkie reference, it’s hilarious, and it has good colors. FTW.

Abaeterno ~ m. Brady Clark | Apparently this is a LOST shirt, but I guess I haven’t gotten to whatever point in the show it’s referencing, because I don’t quite get it (I’ve only watched season one… taking a break to watch other stuff, now). However, even if it did make sense, I don’t particularly care for this shirt for two reasons: 1) the design is somewhat *ahem* phallic in nature; 2) it’s a white tee. Blegh.

 

Lost Collage ~ jimiyo | Another LOST homage, and one that I also do not completely understand. I see a few familiar elements from the show, but I guess all will be revealed as I progress through the other seasons. At first blush, the shirt appears to be ancient Egyptian in nature, which is pretty cool. Also, it’s black, and that’s a plus.

So, one, possibly two good tees out of three is not too bad at all. The second shirt would probably just be something to throw on around the house, mostly because it’s white. White ≠ win.

OH! This tee was not part of the June grab-bag, but I have to post it because it’s from TeeFury and it’s awesome (and you know it’s awesome because I paid $11 shipped for it on its sale day):

Pandora BlueSkins ~ WinterArtwork | Sorry, but I liked the movie Avatar, and don’t care what the haters say. Not really a Washington Redskins fan (the design is a spoof of their logo), but that doesn’t really matter. This really appeals to the geek in me, and I had to have it.

Want one of these tees? Too late. If you don’t grab a TeeFury tee you like on the sale date, or unless you’re lucky enough to get it in the next month’s grab-bag, the only way to acquire a previous tee is if someone is selling/trading theirs. Sorry. ;]